LIFEBOAT MAGAZINE ARCHIVE

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Sand Runner (1)

LISTING VESSEL Selsey, and Shoreham Harbour, Sussex. At 2.20 a.m. on 5th December, 1963, the coastguard told the honorary secretary at Selsey that Niton radio station had received a distress call from the motor vessel Sand Runner, of Goole. She had a heavy list and required help, her position being given as seven miles eastnorth- east of Owers lightvessel. The lifeboat Canadian Pacific was launched at 2.48 in a moderate north-easterly wind and a moderate sea. It was high water.

Shortly after 3.21 a message was intercepted from the Sand Runner that her position was seven miles off Worthing and the life-boat, whose position was then eight miles south of Bognor Regis, was informed. At 4.16 the life-boat gave her position as four miles south-east of Littlehampton, but the Sand Runner had not been sighted, although the motor vessel Kenrick had been standing by and had kept her searchlight on the vessel in distress. The Kenrick fired a flare at 4.50 which the life-boat saw at a distance of two miles. By 5.19 the Sand Runner, with an increased list and her steering seriously restricted, had reached a position seven to eight miles south of Shoreham, and at 5.20 the Shoreham Harbour life-boat Dorothy and Philip Constant was launched.

She found the motor vessel four miles south-west of Shoreham Harbour, went alongside her portside and took off four of her crew, leaving three men still on board. The Sand Runner then moved to a position one mile south of the harbour where she anchored, while the Selsey lifeboat returned to her station and the Kenrick resumed her passage. At 9.30 the Shoreham Harbour life-boat, which had been standing by, was joined by the harbour tug Kingston Buck and an hour later the Sand Runner began her run into harbour under her own steam, still with a 20 degree list and with life-boat and tug standing by. The four members of her crew had been transferred back to their ship. The Selsey life-boat eventually reached her station at 9.50 and the Shoreham Harbour life-boat at 12.10 p.m.

Selsey life-boat was also called out on 3ist October, 1963, and Shoreham Harbour life-boat was called out on 3rd November, 1963..